1) Yes, but there are some trains (listed in the eurail timetable with a ®) that require reservations. Also, on the eurail website, you can find a list of specific trains in countries that require reservations. http://www.eurail.co… —domestic trains
http://www.eurail.co… —int’l trains
It depends on which country you are in. If you are in France, Switzerland, Germany, etc. you should probably use your railpass to get around in those countries because their prices for train tickets are very expensive. But for some routes in Italy, you would be better off just buying a regular ticket, such as Pisa-Florence (costs 5 euros), etc. If you go on the different countries’ rail websites, it will tell you how much each trip costs when you enter the date and places. Usually for a railpass, a trip needs to cost at least 45-50 dollars to be worth a day on the pass. Get a pass only for the number of days in which trips cost this much.
Also, you can go to railsaver.com and put in “use a railpass only if it saves me money” with your itinerary, and it should tell you which trips will be worth a day on the pass.

I find the German rail website to be the best for getting specific times for trains. You can find it here:
http://reiseauskunft…

thanks!!!